Remote-control system employing a thermal delay switch



y 6, 1952 J. L. BONANNO 2,595,919

REMOTE-CONTROL SYSTEM EMPLOYING A THERMAL DELAY SWITCH Filed Nov. 12,1947 2 SHEETSSHEET l IN VEN TOR. JOSEPH L Eamnmvo YM f.

A TTORNE Y y 6, 1952 J. L. BONANNO 2,595,919

REMOTE-CONTROL SYSTEM EMPLOYING THERMAL DELAY SWITCH. Filed NOV. 12,1947 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 IN V EN TOR. 705524 Z 60M4A/N0 A TTOR NE Y PatentedMay 6, 1952 REMOTE-CONTROL SYSTEM EMPLOYING A THERMAL DELAY SWITCHJoseph L. Bonanno, Madison, N. J assignor to The Lionel Corporation, NewYork, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 12, 1947,Serial No. 785,407

3 Claims.

1 The present invention relates to remote control systems employingthermal delay switches and is more particularly directed toward suchswitches and circuits suitable for use in the operation of toy railroadcars.

It is customary to provide toy railroad cars with an instantaneouslyoperated device such as an electromagnetically operated coupler and withsome other electrically operated accessories such as dump car mechanism,door opening mechanism, merchandise handling mechanism or the likeoperated less frequently, or subsequently. See, for example, my PatentNo. 2,232,508, February 18, 1941. The present invention aims to providean arrangement whereby the couplers may be actuated when desired andwhereby the other accessories may be actuated after the couplers havebeen actuated, the controls requiring no more than the usual power andreturn rails which carry the propulsion current for the toy railroadtrains.

According to the present invention the car carries a relay which is notresponsive to propulsion current but is responsive to non-propulsioncurrent in the rails. This non-propulsion current may be a tuned radiofrequency current, produced as shown in my application Serial No.779,273, filed October 11, 1947, or a direct current componentsuperimposed upon the A. C. propulsion current. A relay operated in suchsuperposed current is shown inmy Patent No. 2,155,343, dated April 18,1939.

The present invention makes it possible to control the couplers or theaccessory as desired when the car is at any place along the usual tworail or three rail track.

Other and further objects will appear as the description proceeds.

The accompanying drawings show, for purposes of illustrating the presentinvention, one form, together with modified forms of circuit, it beingunderstood that the drawings are illustrative of the invention ratherthan limiting the same,

In these figures:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a thermal delay switch together withwiring diagram;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; I

Figure 3 is an end view taken from the right of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an exploded view showing the component parts;

Figure 5 illustrates a modified wiring diagram; and

Figure 6 shows a complete wiring diagram for 2. a radio frequencycontrol and part of the car.

The thermal delay switch has an insulating base Ill' having a threadedhole II, two notches I2, I2, and two holes I3, I3. Immediately abovethis base is a bimetallic thermal element I5 of U-shape. This thermalelement has two contact terminals I6, I! which protrude beyond the base,two holes I8, I8 spaced the same as the holes I3, I3, and its left endas shown in the drawings is entirely free. This bimetallic element is soarranged that its free end bends upwardly away from the base uponheating of the bimetallic element by currents flowing through it.

Immediately above the bimetallic element I5 is a spacer l9, made ofinsulating material and above this spacer is a sheet of insulating paperand a flexible sheet metal contact plate 2|. The contact plate,insulating sheet and thermal element all have the same general contourand are provided with holes which align with the holes I3. The free endof the contact plate 2| carries a silver contact 24. Immediately abovethe contact plate 2| is another spacer similar to the spacer I9. A coverplate 26 has stiflening side flanges 21, 2'! and prongs 28 adapted toenter the notches I2 and be bent about the bot tom of the base. Theplate 26 has holes 29 adapted to be aligned with similar plate holes inthe other parts, and hollow rivets 30, 39 and spacers 3|, 3| areemployed to assemble the other parts together. The contact plate 26 hasa bendable tongue 32 carrying a silver contact 33 opposite the contact24 of the flexible plate 2|. The tongue 32 is adapted to be bent toadjusted position by a screw 34 passing through the threaded hole II.

The contact plate 2| has a protruding soldering lug 35 and the covermember 26 has a similar lug 36. The thermal delay switch is carried onthe car C, Fig. 6, and one side of the bimetallic element (for exampleI1) is connected by wires 31, 38 with electromagnetic couplers 39, 39carried by the car and grounded as usual to the return rail 45. Theother terminal I6 of the bimetallic element is connected by wire 49 witha contact 4| adapted to be engaged by an armature 42 of a relay 43. Asshown in Figures 1 and 6, this relay is of the type adapted for use inan electronic controller and forms part of a car carried assembly Rwhich also includes a rectifier 46 and a tuned radio frequency receiver47. These parts are connected through the usual contact rollers 44' onthe car to the power rail 44 and through the wheels 45' as usual to thereturn rail 45.

The propulsion current circuit includes a variable voltage stepdowntransformer 6| connected to the power supply wires 62 and having anoutput circuit whose wires 63 and G4 are connected to terminals 65 and66 of a radio frequency transmitter designated generally by thereference character 61. This radio frequency transmitter has an outputcoil 68 composed of a few turns of heavy copper wire connected with theterminal 65 and with an output terminal 69. The terminal 66 of thecontroller 61 is connected by a strap 10 to an output terminal 10. Theterminals 69 and 10 of the radio frequency transmitter are connected bywires H and 12 with the center and grounded rails 44 and 45 of the tracklayout.

The radio frequency transmitter 61 has input terminals 80 and 8| adaptedto be connected to the power supply 62. The transmitter is here shown asprovided with a diode-pentode vacuum tube having two filaments 83 and 84connected between the terminals 80 and 8|. The filament 83 cooperateswith an anode 85 and cathode 86 of a diode section, while the filament84 cooperates with a cathode 81 and anode 88 and two grids 89 and 90respectively of a pentode section. The anode 85 of the diode section isconnected to the filament as indicated at 9l'. The anode 88 of thepentode section is connected by a wire indicated at 92 with one side ofa trimmer condenser 83 and with a metal plate 94 having a plurality ofresilient fingers 95 adapted to be brought into engagement with contacts96 connected toa plurality of taps carried by a tank coil 91. One end ofthe tank coil 91 is connected to the trimmer condenser 93 by a wireindicated at 98, while the other end of the tank coil 91 is connectedthrough a radio frequency choke 99 and wire ice with the cathode 96 ofthe diode section. Two condensers [Ill and IE2 are in series with oneanother and in parallel with the trimmer condenser. These condensers areconnected to the filament circuit by a wire indicated at I03, thecondenser Hll is shunted by a condenser I04 and resistance I connectedto the control grid 90 by a wire I05. The control grid 99 is connectedto the radio frequency choke lead I06 through a resistance [06 and thecathode 81 and filament circuit through a condenser [91. A condenser H18interconnects the filament 84 and cathode 81 with the choke lead I00. Acondenser I09 is placed across the input terminals 65 and 66 to by-passthe radio frequency currents on the power side.

When the device is designed for operation on 60 cycle house current andemploys a No. 117N7GT tube suitable values for the condensers,resistances, choke and tank coil may be selected whereby it is possibleto secure frequencies of from 240 to 360 kilocycles to be supplied thepropulsion circuit and a selected frequency in this range is availablewhen the desired button is depressed.

The receivers such as R have wiring diagrams such as shown in Figures 1and 6. The receiver R shown at the left end of Figure 6 responds to oneselected frequency and is adapted for controlling a particular load,while the receiver R carried on the car C responds to a differentfrequency and is used to control the two loads through the thermalrelay.

When the relay 43 closes the circuit at contact 42 current flows fromthe power rail directly to the contact 42 and through the wire 40 to thethermal relay parts described in detail herein. When this circuit isclosed propulsion current as well as any other circuit circulatesthrough the load circuit of the thermal relay. The power of course comesfrom the power transformer 6|, the electromagnetic relay acting asconnecting means to the power line.

Where it is desired to employ the thermal relay in a circuit having arelay operated by superposed direct current as in my Patent No. 2$55,343, a direct current sensitive relay such as shown at 23 in thatpatent is used instead of the relay 43 discussed above.

When the track circuit is provided with radio frequency currents of thefrequency corresponding with that of the tuned receiver the relay isactuated and current flows through the thermal element to the couplersto operate them. On heating of the thermal element it moves against theinsulating sheet 20 and applies pressure to the free end of the flexiblesheet 20 and applies pressure to the free end of the flexible contactplate 2| bringing the contact 24 against the contact 33. Thisinterconnects plates 2! and 26. These plates may be employed as controlswitches for additional accessories. The circuit can be connected asshown in Figure 1 wherein the relay connected side 16 of the thermalelement is connected to one of the soldering lugs 35 or as while theother lug is connected to an accessory device such as an unloading coil59, which is grounded. It will be noted in this arrangement that thecurrent for operating the unloading coil does not pass through thethermal element. These parts can readily be manufactured and adjusted soas to operate with rather precise timing so that when the relay receivesbut a short impulse of operating current the couplers only are operatedand when the relay circuit is closed for a few seconds the thermalelement acts to close the circuit to the other accessory.

The same structure for thermal retarder can be used as a direct thermalrelay as indicated in Figure 5 in which the thermal element 15 is in acircuit entirely different from that of contact members 24' and 33.

Since it is obvious that the invention may be embodied in other formsand constructions within the scope of the claims, I wish it to beunderstood that the particular form shown is but one of these forms, andvarious modifications and changes being possible, I do not otherwiselimit myself in any way with respect thereto.

What is claimed is:

l. A toy railroad car having two current collectors cooperable with theusual rails, a relay on the car connected to the current collectors tobe energized therefrom, the relay being non-responsive to propulsioncurrent but responsive to nonpropulsion current in the rails, and anormally open work-circuit on the car closed when the relay isenergized, said work circuit including two current consumingelectromagnetic devices one permanently connected to the relay through abimetallic thermal member adapted to be heated by flow of current, theother including a switch closable by the thermal member when heated,whereby one of the electromagnetic devices may be actuated byinstantaneous energizing of the relay, and the other device actuatedonly after the relay has been energized for a predetermined time.

2. A toy railroad car as claimed in claim 1 wherein the relay connectionincludes a tuned radio frequency receiver and rectifier.

3. A toy railroad car having power supply and grounded currentcollectors cooperable with the usual rails, a pair ofelectromagnetically opera- .ble couplers connected to the groundedcurrent collector, a car-carried electrically operated accessoryconnected to the grounded current col lector, a normally opencar-carried relay having one contact connected to the power supply rail,a bimetallic thermal element connected between the other contact of therelay and the couplers so that coupler operating current passes throughthe thermal element upon closing of the relay, and a relay connectedaccessory operating circuit in parallel with the thermal element andcoupler and including a pair of normally open contacts closable by thethermal element.

JOSEPH L. BONANNO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,073,443 Cardoza Mar. 9, 19372,173,483 King Sept. 19, 1939 2,243,671 Ehret May 27, 1941 2,303,786Bonanno Dec. 1, 1942 2,338,474 Wilson Jan. 4, 1944 2,425,717 Bean Aug.19, 1947

